


Engagement Bros

by keybladephantom



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Minor Sakamoto Ryuji/Takamaki Ann, Persona 5: The Royal Spoilers, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:48:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26350663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keybladephantom/pseuds/keybladephantom
Summary: Ryuji decides he wants to take a new step in his relationship with Ann and Akira is happy to help him out. Goro goes through a small crisis trying to figure out why Akira is avoiding the 'm' word with regards to their own relationship.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 21
Kudos: 233





	Engagement Bros

This was 100% Ryuji’s fault.

It started out as a normal day with Akira working at Leblanc and Goro keeping his boyfriend company in the empty cafe. Ryuji walked into Leblanc, shifting nervously and looking around to ensure no one else was there. After seeing only Akira and Goro in the cafe, he settled a bit and leaned onto the counter top.

“You okay there?” Akira asked.

Ryuji let a sigh and took a second to steel himself. “Can I talk to you privately?” he asked Akira. This set off a few alarms in Goro’s head; there was no one else here, what could he possibly need to say to Akira that Goro couldn’t be around for. Akira seemed to have the same thought and frowned.

“Sure but any reason you can’t talk down here?”

Ryuji side-eyed Goro, and Goro had to hold himself back from a snappy remark. He was better than this, he wouldn’t jump to the worst case scenario like he would’ve in the past. “Look man, it’s not that I don’t trust you, but you’re super close with Ann and I can’t risk her hearing about this.”

Okay. So this wasn’t going to be a ‘shit-talk Goro behind his back and convince Akira that he deserves better’ conversation, but now Goro felt new concerns. What could Ryuji need to talk to Akira about concerning Ann? They’d been dating for a few years now, could there really be trouble in their bickering paradise?

A moment passed and Ryuji let out another sigh. “Fine, but you gotta swear not to mention any of this to her. And Futaba, turn off your bugs in here for like 10 minutes!” he shouted.

Akira gave him a small smile. “Everyone’s lips are sealed. What’s up? Everything okay with you two?” he asked.

“Yeah things are great! And we’ve been dating for a while and known each other for ages and I was passing this store in the underground and saw some rings and…” he trailed off. Goro froze. Oh. _Oh._ He kept a straight face but avoided looking anywhere in Akira’s direction. 

When Goro had seemingly come back from the dead a second time after they defeated Maruki, he didn’t immediately find Akira. He found out what had happened to him and worked from the shadows to help get him released from his unjust sentence, but he didn’t reveal himself until Akira was on his way home on the train. Akira had tried to play off how relieved he was and act as if he’d known Goro would come back to him, but Goro could read him better than that. He could see the relief and a loving look pass over Akira, and a small bit of fear as if he thought Goro would just disappear again at any moment. Their first year together had been a bit rocky with Goro unsure of how to live outside of his revenge scheme and Akira constantly keeping him close just to be sure he wouldn’t lose Goro again, but they’d worked through it and built a healthier relationship out of it. 

But Goro knew Akira was very devoted, and loving, and acted as if Goro was the fucking sun keeping his world bright and warm, and Goro also knew that he deserved none of that. He loved Akira and wouldn’t give him up for the world (and boy did he know what a hypocrite that would make him), but even now he struggled to show it. Knowing how afraid Akira was of losing Goro again, he half expected a proposal within the first month Akira finishing high school so he could be sure Goro wouldn’t leave. Goro figured he’d have to explain to Akira what a reckless and stupid idea it would be to get married so young and how neither of them were responsible enough to handle that...but the question never came. Even now, after four years of dating and three of living together, Akira never even mentioned marriage in passing. Goro wasn’t afraid of it, he just didn’t see the point. He was already committed to Akira for life if you asked him. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have cared to come back and he certainly wouldn’t have thrown away his lifelong revenge plan to keep Akira alive in the engine room. 

So why did Ryuji bringing this up bother him so much?

“Wait, are you saying-? Ryuji, that’s great!” Akira exclaimed.

“Yeah! Yeah, so you know, I love her, and like, I want to make it really special, and I know she deserves the best ring and I really, really need your help planning this out. I have some ideas for how to do it and I got Shiho onboard with helping find a ring she’ll like, but I’m a nervous fucking wreck man, I could use the moral support and someone to keep me in reality with it you know?” Ryuji explained with a dopey smile. Great. Another love-struck fool for Goro to deal with.

“Of course. You’re both my best friends, I’d be honored to help out,” Akira grinned. They continued for a bit until Ryuji finally left looking much more relieved and a plan to meet up for what he and Akira dubbed ‘Operation: Blonde Bachelor Begone’ or 3B for short. Goro felt he deserved a medal for not walking out of the cafe at that.

He gave himself half a second to brace for the awkward conversation that was sure to start and looked over at Akira. “I’m surprised Ryuji is going to be the first one of your merry band of idiots to propose,” he said, trying to sound indifferent and uncaring.

“Nah, I totally saw this coming. He’s been whipped for her since I’ve met him; he just didn’t realize how much for so long. I’m happy for them,” Akira said with a genuine smile. He then went back to cleaning up the cafe for closing. Goro stared for another moment, but nothing else was said about marriage or engagements. Not even a hint of longing in Akira’s expression, no sign that he was thinking about marriage for their own relationship at all.

_...What the fuck?_

\---

Several days after, Goro was still stumped. Ryuji had dragged Akira into full proposal planning land, and while Akira still seemed happy to help and excited for his friends, there was still no signs of him thinking about engagements for himself.

_Wouldn’t most people at least mention it in this situation? Who could talk about someone else’s proposal plans with their partner without even entertaining the ‘what if’ of getting engaged or married one day?_ Goro thought  as he walked in the direction of his and Akira’s apartment .  _Maybe he’s got more sense than I thought. Who the fuck would want to be trapped in a legally binding life long commitment with their fucking murderer?_ Ah, no wait, he shouldn’t be thinking that. His therapist would point out how self-deprecating thoughts like that would grow into a monster that ate at his relationship. But his therapist wasn’t here right now, and certainly wasn’t a mind-reader, so  his thoughts continued to steadily grow more and more negative as the week went on. 

_Of course he wouldn’t want to marry your psychotic ass. You tried to kill him, you let him rot in Tokyo for over a month without letting him know you were alive, you killed the parents of two of his friends. Why would he ever entertain keeping you around permanently like that?_

“Ah, Goro!”

Goro turned around and saw Ann waving at him as she walked towards him. “Hello Ann,” he replied. He had a good friendship with her; she was the first of the original thieves other than Akira that had forgiven what he’d done and worked towards actually getting to know him for him. He may have been a bit of a dick at first, but she’d ignored it and pushed past his spiky personality until before he knew it, they’d had a genuine friendship built.

“Are you heading back to your apartment? I’m heading to the station, I’ll walk with you for a bit!” She starting walking. “God, my day has been so tiring. I tried to meet up with Akira to catch up and he dodged to hang out with Ryuji. They’ve both been meeting up a lot lately, I wonder what they’re scheming.”

Goro kept a straight face as he mentally slapped Ryuji and Akira.  _What fucking idiots don’t come up with alibis for why they’re hanging out together but can’t have Ann around?_ Guys nights only work as excuses so many times in a row.

“Well, they can’t be doing much. Somehow whenever they get together the number of braincells goes down instead of up,” he replied.

Ann let out a snort. “Man, four years and you still can’t be nice about Akira for a full conversation huh?” she teased. “I’m not too worried. They don’t cause anywhere near as much trouble as they did back in high school, and Akira seemed genuinely upset to bail on me today. He’s always so considerate of his friends, I can’t hold whatever silly idea they have against him.”

Goro hummed.  _Oh if you only knew what you just called a ‘silly idea’,_ he thought, slightly envious. He would never admit it out loud, not even to himself, but he was a little jealous. He wished there was a secret proposal Akira was hiding from him that he could unknowingly call silly. “He  _is_ self-sacrificial to a fault over his friends. Although I suppose considerate would be a nicer way to say it.”

“Yeah, I think considerate is a better word there. You aren’t wrong though. I remember one time during Kamoshida’s palace, we ran into Mara for the first time and I freaked out. Akira wasn’t doing great on stamina, but he saw how upset I was and pushed himself too hard to take it out as quickly as possible. I didn’t even know he’d hurt himself using his persona too much until a week later when I overheard him and Ryuji talking about it.”

“That...sounds very much like him.”

“Honestly, I felt bad for a while about it. I could’ve handled fighting it longer to keep him from hurting himself, but when I talked to him about it he assured me it was fine. He said he’d rather do whatever he can to make sure the people he loves are okay than not give everything he has.”

Goro stopped walking at that.  _Wait._

“Goro..?” Ann stopped and turned to him. “You okay there? I made that sound a bit dramatic, he didn’t get like, a permanent injury, he just came out more exhausted and slept a few extra hours, sorry if you worried.”

“No, no that’s not it. I’m glad he tried to keep you feeling safe, I’m not worried. I just...realized something.”

Ann hummed. “If you say so.” Her phone vibrated and she pulled it out to check. “Oh, Ryuji just texted me. I guess he and Akira are done with whatever, he wants me to meet him for crepes. Weird, he normally doesn’t like sweets at this time…” she trailed off. “Anyway, I guess I’m not going to the station anymore! I’ll see you later,” she gave him a wave and smile and began walking away.

Goro stood there a moment longer gathering his thoughts.  _Akira would give his own well-being to keep his loved ones happy and safe._ Of course he’d never brought up marriage. Goro had started this relationship acting as if it was a form of a death sentence. He hadn’t even been able to say “I love you” until two years into it. Hell, he couldn’t even handle hearing it from Akira for the first year at all.  He’d been so caught up in thinking that it was too good to be true, that this was all a trick for him to let his guard down and let someone in, and he knew if he let that happen and things didn’t work out, it would break him beyond repair. Being loved was such an impossible idea for him for so long. And Akira knew that. He knew all of Goro’s baggage and still stayed. He tried so hard not to say the word ‘love’ and keep his affection mild until Goro was ready, even though Goro could see he wanted to shower him with all the love and devotion humanly possible.

So of course Akira would assume that marriage was off the table until  _Goro_ was ready to bring it up. Of course he wouldn’t start that conversation-when he’d said he loved Goro for the first time, Goro had ghosted him in a panic for a week. Why wouldn’t he think that even thinking about marrying Goro too loudly would result in catastrophe? Honestly, Goro of a few years ago would’ve combusted on the spot to get out of that conversation, how could he possibly blame Akira for never bringing it up?

Which left Goro with one question:  _do I want to marry Akira?_

As soon as the question entered his mind, he answered himself out loud with no hesitation, “Of course I fucking do.” He startled. He hadn’t expected that. With that revelation, his heart rate sped up and he felt the tiny romantic part of himself taking over. After all, Akira was the romantic person he knew. It’d be unfair to have any other part of himself handling this. He turned around and walked back towards Central Street, heading towards the underground mall.

\---

Akira  walked up the stairs to his apartment feeling relieved. Ryuji and him had spent most of the day finishing up the final touches of his proposal and he had left him with Shiho for moral support before the big moment tonight. He had no doubt Ann would say yes, he knew how much she loved Ryuji, but he also knew that having to actually ask the question would be nerve-wracking. 

One of the hardest parts of helping out during all of this was keeping a straight face around Goro. Akira wanted to marry him as soon as he’d come back into his life. A life committed to Goro and to helping each other become the best versions of themselves, being whoever they wanted together? Nothing in the world sounded better, and while he still had Goro’s glove signifying Goro’s commitment to him, he really would’ve liked to also have something that he could show to others without looking creepy. Who keeps a glove that was thrown at their face by someone who claimed he hated him and then tried to shoot in the head? A ring would be a bit easier to explain.

But he knew Goro wouldn’t want that. He knew Goro was committed to him and loved him, and he was fine with where they were. He could handle being loved and loving Goro without making Goro feel trapped. Akira was just happy that they could say they loved each other without Goro disappearing for  weeks over it.

He unlocked the door and stepped into the apartment. “Honey, I’m home~,” he called out playfully. His brow furrowed as he closed the door behind him and looked around. The lights were low and on the floor leading their bedroom was...rose petals? His heart rate jumped for a second and he grinned. His boyfriend wasn’t usually this romantic before jumping him, but why look a gift horse in the mouth.

He followed the path to the bedroom and smirked. “Hey honey, what’s-,” he stopped as he saw his boyfriend still fully clothed leaning against the wall. Huh. Okay, so maybe not that kind of evening. He could live with that. “What’s up with the petals? Did I forget an important date?” he joked. Of course he hadn’t. Akira could never forget any important day about their relationship. He still remembered the day of their not-a-date-but-kinda date at the aquarium.

“No no, nothing important about today. But,” Goro pushed himself off the wall and walked over to Akira. “I _am_ hoping that you’ll help me change that,” he smirked and went down on one knee.

Akira’s heart stopped.  _What. What the fuck holy fuck what is this real is this actually what I think what the fuck is happening._

“Akira,” Goro began, looking up at him. “I know I’m not the best at expressing my affection with words. So I’ll keep this short; you are the only person in my life that has ever given me a chance. You are the only one who has ever loved and accepted me for who I am, and without you I would’ve thrown my life away like nothing more than once. I gave you a symbol of my feelings for you once in the past without knowing what I really meant by it. I know what it meant now.” Akira stood frozen and watched with wide eyes as Goro pulled a small box from his pocket. “I’m going to be entirely honest with you: I love you,” he began. Akira felt a wave of nostalgia pass over him as tears started forming in his eyes. He’d heard something like this before. “Your devotion to our relationship even with the odds against us, your patience waiting for me to catch up to you emotionally, your ability to forgive me even after all the hurt I’ve brought onto you-all of these amaze me. You’re the one person I refuse to lose in this world. So let this be my proof,” he opens the box and Akira feels the tears fall. “I won’t make you hear about traditions and duels,” Goro cocks a half-smile, fully aware of what he’s been doing. “I’m sure you know what this is now. So I’ll be straightforward this time. Will you marry me?”

Akira is normally a strong person. He’s the leader of the phantom thieves, unshakeable in any situation and compleetely in control of his emotion, able to be stoic in almost any circumstance. So it’s a bit shocking for both of them when Akira lets out a half-sob, half-laugh and falls onto his knees leaning into his boyfriend. “Are you serious? This is real right? This isn’t a long con of actualization?” he says, his voice breaking a bit at the end.

Goro puts the ring down to grab Akira’s hands and hold them in his own. “No, no false realities or gods forcing me. I’m doing this on my own terms because I love you, and I want to spend my life with you.” He places a kiss on Akira’s forehead and moves one of his hands to wipe at his tears. “I hope these are happy tears. You haven’t actually answered yet-would you rather I  throw the ring at you and  ask for another duel instead?” he jokes.

“When did you start being the funny romantic one?” Akira laughs. “Of course I will. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to marry you.”

“I...may have some idea. I’m sorry I made you wait so long.”

“No, I should’ve brought it up. I shouldn’t have been so scared,” Akira replies. “So...are you gonna throw the ring at me or actually put it on my hand?”

“Ha ha. I think I can tone down the dramatics,” Goro rolls his eyes with a smile and reaches for the ring. Sliding it onto Akira’s finger feels unreal. His heart skips a beat and he feels his own eyes getting a little watery seeing it on Akira’s hand. “I hope Ryuji doesn’t mind me stealing his day like this.”

“I’ll fight him if he does,” Akira says, starting at his ring. “Wait, how’d you know he’s doing it tonight?”

“Ah, I ran into Ann on the way home. She received a text from Ryuji to meet up for crepes while we were talking. Honestly, he’s lucky neither of them catch on quick between that and you two not having proper cover stories.”  
  
“Hey! We did our best! Not everyone is as good as you at hiding proposal plans.”

Goro clears his throat at that. Akira looks up at his boyf-fiance. Right. This is his fiance now. “I...should be honest I suppose. I didn’t plan this very long. I may or may not have bought this ring an hour ago when I realized I wanted to marry you.”

Akira stares. Goro never makes impulsive romantic decisions like this. Akira expected a full month of Goro internally shutting down after hearing Ryuji talk about marriage at all, but here he was deciding he wanted that for himself instead? “I’m definitely not complaining, but what made you realize that so quickly?” Akira asks, a little afraid. What if this was impulsive and Goro decided to take the ring back. He clutches his left hand a little harder. Goro notices and jumps into damage control.

“This wasn’t out of nowhere exactly,” Goro blushes and looks away. “It’s a little conceited, but I thought that as soon as you were legally old enough you’d try to propose. And initially I thought it’d be your way of trapping me forever.” Ah, that sounds more like what Akira thought. He doesn’t confirm that Goro is right about him wanting to propose so soon, even if it is true. “After Ryuji came to Leblanc last week I was expecting you to bring it up in regards to our relationship, but you didn’t even mention it in passing for us. I started thinking that maybe you’d finally come to your senses and knew better than to trap yourself with me forever.” Goro looks back at him and raises a hand when Akira opens his mouth to object. “I know that’s not the case now, don’t worry. 

“When I was talking with Ann, we got on the subject of your self-sacrificial nature and I realized that given my history with our relationship and how I’ve handled different milestones within it, you would be under the impression that marriage would feel like a trap not for you, but for me. And with your willingness to sacrifice your own happiness for others, I realized you’d never risk making me feel uncomfortable by bringing it up. Once I could see that, it became very clear that if I wanted to marry you, I’d have to start that conversation. I’m not one for beating around the bush as you know though. I asked myself if I wanted to marry you, and the answer was yes. So I bought a ring, some roses, and waited for you to come home. This wasn’t a hard decision; if anything, it’d been a long time coming if I weren’t so...me.”

“I wouldn’t take you any other way,” Akira assures him with a smile that makes Goro feel like the luckiest man in the world. Goro leans in to kiss him but is stopped as Akira’s phone buzzes. Akira pulls it out to check.

** Ryuji: She said yes!!! 💍❤❤❤ [img attached] **

Akira starts laughing and turns his phone to show it to Goro. “I wonder how they’ll react when they hear about us,” he says.

“Hmm. One way to find out,” Goro says and grabs Akira’s phone. He opens the camera and holds up Akira’s left hand with a smirk. “Smile, fiance,” he smirks and Akira barely has time to look at the camera before the picture is taken. Goro sends a message back to Ryuji:

** Akira: So did he [img attached] **

“Man, even when you’re happy you're a little shit,” Akira says fondly as he takes his phone back. Goro leans in and almost gets to kiss him before he’s interrupted once again by Akira’s phone buzzing. It’s Ryuji. “Hey man,” Akira answers, smirking at Goro’s glare. 

“DUDE!! We’re engagement bros!” Goro hears Ryuji shout happily. Akira grins and begins talking with his bro, leaving Goro waiting on his celebratory kiss.

Akira covers the receiver on his phone for a moment as Ryuji is going on with Ann shouting happily in the background. “Don’t worry honey, we can celebrate properly soon,” he whispers in Goro’s ear. Ah. Goro feels his face heat up and clears his throat. Maybe he can wait for his kiss a little bit longer.

**Author's Note:**

> No I couldn't come up with a better title. I haven't unlocked the level of writer that gives you the ability to come up with good titles, I'm only a lowly artist （；￣д￣）
> 
> Twitter: @kb_phantom  
> Tumblr: @keybladephantom  
> Instagram: @keyblade-phantom


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